The Direct Selling – Self Regulatory Council (DSSRC) is a good first step towards meaningful self regulation. Without question, the industry needs additional oversight. The FTC got heavily involved during the Herbalife / Vemma years, much to the chagrin of industry insiders. The results were messy, imprecise, and predictable. It was predictable because absent meaningful […]
I was recently asked to list out 10 factors that distributors could use to measure companies. After having represented countless companies and been on the front lines to observe both good and bad behaviors, I have a pretty good idea about the important factors. So here goes, in no particular order… 1) Experienced Leadership In […]
On January 29, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission went after the company Digital Altitude. The FTC’s pursuit represents the first enforcement action against a network marketing company under the Trump administration. Reading between the lines, there are some key takeaways — some familiar and some new — for how the FTC will police network marketing […]
Over the past five years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has repeatedly exerted its regulatory will on multi-level marketing companies. In Part One of this two part series, I explained the basic elements of a “security” and the trouble surrounding the presence of unregistered securities in the context of network marketing. In this article, I provide some concrete […]
While entrepreneurs and marketers alike are often aware of the FTC’s involvement in the direct sales space, clients largely remain unaware of the Security and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) involvement in network marketing. The SEC oversees the enforcement of federal securities laws. This means the SEC is designed to ensure companies do not offer or sell securities in the absence […]
Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, gave a powerful speech at the DSA’s Business and Policy Conference in Washington on October 25th. While some in attendance were expecting a non-substantive speech, the kind one would expect from a high-ranking government official, Ramirez was anything but boring. She gracefully navigated some very controversial terrain […]
